New genus of flea beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) from the Upper Eocene Baltic amber

Ambraaltica baltica new genus and new species (Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae: Alticini) is described from Upper Eocene Baltic amber. It is illustrated and compared to recent flea beetle genera and genera known from fossil resins

Toward the Assembly of 2D Tunable Crystal Patterns of Spherical Colloids on a Wafer-Scale

Entering an era of miniaturization prompted scientists to explore strategies to assemble colloidal crystals for numerous applications, including photonics. However, wet methods are intrinsically less versatile than dry methods, whereas the manual rubbing method of dry powders has been demonstrated only on sticky elastomeric layers, hindering particle transfer in printing applications and applicability in analytical screening. To address this clear impetus of broad applicability, we explore here the assembly on nonelastomeric, rigid substrates by utilizing the manual rubbing method to rapidly (≈20 s) attain monolayers comprising hexagonal closely packed (HCP) crystals of monodisperse dry powder spherical particles with a diameter ranging from 500 nm to 10 μm using a PDMS stamp. Our findings elucidate that the tribocharging-induced electrostatic attraction, particularly on relatively stiff substrates, and contact mechanics force between particles and substrates are critical contributors to attain large-scale HCP structures on conductive and insulating substrates. The best performance was obtained with polystyrene and PMMA powder, while silica was assembled only in HCP structures on fluorocarbon-coated substrates under zero-humidity conditions. Finally, we successfully demonstrated the assembly of tunable crystal patterns on a wafer-scale with great control on fluorocarbon-coated wafers, which is promising in microelectronics, bead-based assays, sensing, and anticounterfeiting applications

Experimental analysis of end mill axis inclination and its influence on 3D areal surface texture parameters

[EN] The surface quality of machined parts depends highly on the surface texture that reflects the marks of the tool during the cutting process. The traditional theoretical approach indicates that these marks are related to the cutting parameters (e.g. cutting speed, feed, depths of cut), the machining type, the part material, the tool, etc. The influence of these factors has been widely studied by researchers and they have been considered in milling process models proposed to predict the final surface texture. Nevertheless, if an accurate prediction is desired, these milling models must include different geometrical errors influencing the cutting edges path on the part. In this paper, we present the results of a study showing the influence of real mill-axis inclination on 3D surface texture. Therefore, experiments with simple, end mill tool operation, with constant cutting parameters and four different cutting directions (the directions that we labelled as North, South, East, and West) in accordance with the machine coordinate system were performed. Using optical 3D areal surface texture measurement techniques with the Bruker Contour device, we obtained areal surface texture parameters for analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis and one-way ANOVA analysis were performed to detect the factor significances and their influence on 3D areal surface texture parameters. The results from ANOVA and graphical analysis clearly identified tool-axis inclination in the South and West directions. If a relationship between tool-axis inclination and surface texture parameters can be demonstrated, this calculation can be included in the model of 3D surface texture formation. Improving the mathematical model with all possible errors occurring in high speed machining operations helps to obtain more precise texture parameter Sz results for simple end mill operation. The model is suitable for complicated machining operations with ball end mill tools.Logins, A.; Rosado Castellano, P.; Torims, T.; Gutiérrez, SC.; Sergejev, F. (2017). Experimental analysis of end mill axis inclination and its influence on 3D areal surface texture parameters. Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. 66(2):194-201. doi:10.3176/proc.2017.2.09S19420166

Dielectric response of BaTiO electronic states under AC fields via microsecond time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy

This research was performed under the approval of the Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee (PF-PAC; Contract Numbers 2015G580, 2017G587, and 2019G614) and was financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 18H01153 , 19H02426 , and 18K19126 . The experiment for measuring spectra in Fig. 6 (b) was performed on beamline BM26A (proposal MA 2731) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France. We are grateful to Local Contact at the ESRF for providing assistance in using beamline BM26A. Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART². © 2021 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )For the first time, the dielectric response of a BaTiO thin film under an AC electric field is investigated using microsecond time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Ti K-edge in order to clarify correlated contributions of each constituent atom on the electronic states. Intensities of the pre-edge peak and shoulder structure just below the main edge increase with an increase in the amplitude of the applied electric field, whereas that of the main peak decreases in an opposite manner. Based on the multiple scattering theory, the increase and decrease of the and main peaks are simulated for different Ti off-center displacements. Our results indicate that these spectral features reflect the inter- and intra-atomic hybridization of Ti 3 with O 2 and Ti 4 respectively. In contrast, the shoulder structure is not affected by changes in the Ti off-center displacement but is susceptible to the effect of the corner site Ba ions. This is the first experimental verification of electronic contribution of Ba to polarization reversal.----/ / /---- This is open access article of S. Kato, N. Nakajima, S. Yasui, S. Yasuhara, D. Fu, J. Adachi, H. Nitani, Y. Takeichi, A. Anspoks, Dielectric response of BaTiO3 electronic states under AC fields via microsecond time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy (DOI 10.1016/j.actamat.2021.116681), Acta Materialia, Volume 207, 2021,116681 - under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee (PF-PAC; Contract Numbers 2015G580, 2017G587, and 2019G614); JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 18H01153 , 19H02426 , and 18K19126; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

Computational Controversy

Climate change, vaccination, abortion, Trump: Many topics are surrounded by fierce controversies. The nature of such heated debates and their elements have been studied extensively in the social science literature. More recently, various computational approaches to controversy analysis have appeared, using new data sources such as Wikipedia, which help us now better understand these phenomena. However, compared to what social sciences have discovered about such debates, the existing computational approaches mostly focus on just a few of the many important aspects around the concept of controversies. In order to link the two strands, we provide and evaluate here a controversy model that is both, rooted in the findings of the social science literature and at the same time strongly linked to computational methods. We show how this model can lead to computational controversy analytics that have full coverage over all the crucial aspects that make up a controversy.Comment: In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo) 201

Analyzing Ideological Communities in Congressional Voting Networks

We here study the behavior of political party members aiming at identifying how ideological communities are created and evolve over time in diverse (fragmented and non-fragmented) party systems. Using public voting data of both Brazil and the US, we propose a methodology to identify and characterize ideological communities, their member polarization, and how such communities evolve over time, covering a 15-year period. Our results reveal very distinct patterns across the two case studies, in terms of both structural and dynamic properties

Optical Periscopic Imager for Comets (OPIC) Instrument for the Planned Comet Interceptor Mission

This poster presents an update on the development of the Optical Periscopic Imager for Comets (OPIC) instrument [1], which will be hosted on one of three spacecraft making up the Comet Interceptor ESA-JAXA mission [2]. OPIC is a compact ( \u3c 0.5 kg) monochromic camera for taking images of the nucleus and coma of either a long-period or dynamically new comet, or an interstellar object for mapping, reconstruction and localisation purposes. The camera will operate in a harsh environment with continuous dust impacts throughout its multi-day operation; therefore, the instrument is equipped with a periscope, which protects optics from high-velocity impacts. The probe is spin-stabilised at 4-15 RPM and will be parked in Lagrange point L2 (launched with ARIEL telescope) and depart at a suitable time to intercept a target at velocity 10-70 km/s. The closest approach is approximately 400 km